Assessing and supporting employees through annual appraisal campaigns is an essential tool for HR teams and managers.
Seemingly straightforward, this type of management quickly becomes complex, given the many issues involved and the diversity of the players involved. Every company needs to evaluate its employees on a regular basis. This process is an invaluable opportunity to encourage constructive exchanges, improve dialogue and bring about concrete actions to develop skills.
So how do you make a success of your annual appraisal campaign ? Don't panic! Here are our tips and tricks for running an effective, calm and strategic campaign.
Annual appraisal interview and Campaign review
Assessing beyond results: a global view of the annual appraisal process
The annual appraisal interview goes far beyond simply measuring results. It's a structured exchange between an employee and his or her manager, in which the assessment focuses not only on the quantitative and qualitative objectives achieved, but also on the skills and motivations that made these results possible. This interview offers a unique opportunity to recognize efforts, to value skills and to place individual achievements in the broader context of team, divisional and even corporate objectives.
Our use case: Putting skills at the heart of interviews.
Unlike the professional interview, which is mandatory every two years, the annual appraisal interview is not governed by the French Labor Code. However, it remains a pillar of talent management, enabling employees to view their contribution from a collective perspective. It is also the time to define objectives for the next period, reinforcing the alignment between personal ambitions and the company's strategic priorities.
Campaign reviews: getting the annual meeting up and running
Interview campaigns, whether held once or several times a year, are key moments in talent management. Behind the expression "appraisal campaign" lies an organized and coordinated management of interviews, often facilitated by digital tools dedicated to career development. These campaigns are valuable opportunities to unite teams around common objectives, while offering employees a clear vision of their place and impact within the company.
The main aim of these campaigns is toinvolve everyone in the process, ensuring that managers and employees are well prepared for these moments of exchange. This also makes it possible to centralize the information gathered and draw strategic lessons for improving overall performance. What's more, a good interview campaign reminds each employee of the importance of his or her role, and reinforces his or her commitment to the company's objectives.
Good to know: To better understand the distinction between the annual appraisal interview and the professional interview, you can read our article on the 4 main differences.
Alarming facts and figures
- 95% of managers say they are not satisfied with the quality of annual appraisals.
- 60% of employees feel that these interviews are a waste of time.
- 70% of HR managers consider annual appraisal campaigns to be ineffective.
These figures show that traditional interview campaigns can fall short of their objectives, but don't panic! There are simple, effective solutions to transform these key moments into real drivers of performance and engagement. Let's identify the main stumbling blocks.
Issues and levers for more productive campaigns
What are the main improvements to be made to maintenance campaigns?
Our discussions with HR decision-makers have highlighted 3 areas for improvement:
- Standardizing valuation methods for greater objectivity
- Strengthening the downstream phase of the campaign: the action plan
- Targeting investment on activities that are genuinely beneficial
Alignment and objectivity in performance reviews
First of all, performance assessment systems sometimes lack objectivity. There are often two main reasons for this:
- Lack of clear formalization: terms such as "meets objectives" or "exceeds objectives" can be meaningless when it comes to assessing more qualitative aspects such as collaborative working. Without clearly defined criteria, exchanges become subjective and considered unfair among collaborators.
- Non-integrated tools: Often, performance management modules are "read-only", separate from the interview process. This means that they are not automatically added to the form, making it difficult to align performance management with the interview itself.
Boost post-interview follow-up with concrete actions over time
Once the interview has been completed, validated by both parties and signed, everything seems to be in order. But this is where the real work begins. Many companies find it difficult to follow up on the actions decided at the meeting. The following questions often remain unanswered:
- What support is provided? It's not enough to identify the skills skills to be developed, you also need to provide concrete support to help the employee progress.
- When and how should this support be provided? Companies need to define precise deadlines and assign the right people to monitor employee progress. Without structured follow-up, actions go unheeded and progress stagnates.
Target HR investments on the basis of a mapping of skills and the gaps in skills
HR managers need to use interviews to better consolidate skills needs and thus rationalize their training investments. Yet there is still a great deal of dissatisfaction among HR managers, often linked to an inability to :
- Rationalize training catalogs: The interviews should make it possible to consolidate skills needs throughout the company and prioritize investments. The aim is to identify collective and individual shortcomings, so as to propose appropriate training courses, while optimizing costs.
- Distinguish between individual and collective efforts: HR needs to be able to present budgets that take into account specific development needs while addressing the company's collective issues. This makes it easier to structure requests when discussing development budgets at skills.
Testimonials of best practices
Preparing and communicating the process from the outset
Before launching your annual appraisal campaign, meticulous preparation and clear communication are essential to involve every participant (managers and employees alike). It's not just an administrative formality, but a time for sharing ideas. When Promod, the CNP group and Manutan used the platform for the 1st time, communication was essential, and these companies were able to rely on training and a conversational agent to guide them.
Read how Promod has transformed its campaign management with Neobrain.
Inform your employees in advance
Communicate with your employees at least two weeks before the start of the campaign. Make sure they have all the information they need:
- Campaign start and end dates, plan automatic reminders
- Duration and format of interviews (ideally between 1h and 1h30), synchronized with diaries
- A reminder of the documents that will be useful in completing the interview (assesment of skills, access to training catalogs, career manager, 360° feedback, review of goal attainment, etc.).
This prepares the ground for structured exchanges, while reducing logistical uncertainties. Employees need to be fully aware of the process in order to be actively involved.
Emphasize pedagogy
Saying that this moment is a real lever for development requires you to legitimize your statement: what were the training volumes last year? What was the average level of target achievement over the last 12 months? Are there any corporate objectives to be lowered at each level this year?
What are the benefits of the annual performance review to remind your internal customers?
- For managers: It's an opportunity to connect more deeply with their teams, take their feedback, identify areas for improvement, and actively contribute to their career development.
- For employees: This interview is an opportunity to share their training needs, discuss their ambitions for internal mobility or simply take stock of their workload with their manager.
Co-constructing and managers's training: from evaluation grids to process control
Among our customers, we have found that personalizing analysis grids makes a real difference to the effectiveness of annual appraisals. Rather than using generic templates, it is beneficial to co-construct reviews with managers, taking into account the specific features of each team. This approach better reflects the realities of different professions, while ensuring a degree of overall consistency.
Customize grids for a more relevant assessment
A good balance consists in integrating themes common to all (workload situation, objectives, skills) while adapting certain questions to the specific expertise of each team. What works well is working with managers to ensure that questions are relevant and in line with real needs in the field.
Training managers for constructive exchanges
We have noticed that managers who are well trained in this exercise conduct more engaging interviews. This requires preparation in active listening, constructive feedback and the development of concrete action plans. Best practices include looking back over the past year, identifying successes and challenges, and setting clear objectives for the future, while taking into account employees' development aspirations.
Monitor and implement action plans
Give access to the validated report
Once the meeting is over, quickly share the minutes with the employee. This document ensures that everyone is in line with the conclusions, and offers the opportunity to add or clarify certain points. Although signature is not compulsory, it remains a good practice to reinforce the commitment of both parties.
Define concrete means to achieve objectives
It's not enough to define objectives; you also need to plan the means to achieve them. Our customers see better results when they integrate adapted supports such as certification training, shadowing, mentoring, or more flexible approaches such as mobile learning and micro-learning. These tactics make action plans more concrete and achievable.
Historize and automate in HR tools
Keeping minutes provides a valuable history for future reviews, and brings transparency in sensitive contexts, such as the justification of decisions linked to the variable part of remuneration. This trace helps managers to support their decisions and ensure consistency in performance assessment.
Each new objective set during the interview is automatically integrated into the employee's "performance" section of the HR tool. In the same way, skills 's appraisals feed directly into the employee's profile and career plan. This historical record guarantees rigorous monitoring and enables actions to be adapted as progress is made.
Equip yourself with software that offers the features needed for success
To guarantee the success of your interview campaigns, it's essential to have a tool that's adapted to your current processes.
We recommend using a mobile version to cover all populations who don't necessarily have a computer.
Here are the features that our customers use to make their interviewing campaigns more effective and aligned with strategic corporate objectives.
a. Customization and flexibility :
- Autonomous creation of maintenance forms, without skills technical requirements
- Automatic support and personalized reports
- Customized automatic notifications and reminders
- Multilingual platform for international needs
b. Monitoring and traceability :
- Real-time tracking of maintenance campaigns
- Unlimited archiving of decisions, RGPD-compliant
- Customizable alerts and notifications for each stage
c. Operational efficiency :
- Ready-to-use forms library
- Online wizard for quick start-up
- Automatic follow-ups for 100% interview completion
- Electronic signature integration
d. Collaboration and commitment :
- 360° feedback for participatory evaluation
- Make the platform accessible to the entire population via a mobile app
- Committed development plan with progress monitoring
- Variety of training materials to support development
